Callsign: King

19.

It was difficult to say who was more surprised at the reunion. Sara rushed forward, and in an uncharacteristic display of emotion, wrapped her arms around King. She felt cold to the touch and her kiss tasted faintly of salt, but he welcomed it nonetheless. Days of uncertainty about her fate had been swept aside, and all the questions about what had happened seemed completely unimportant.

When he at last drew back from her embrace, he got a look at her traveling companions, most of whom had deployed in a defensive perimeter around the two helicopters. They all, Sara included, wore dark fatigues, but aside from Sara, only one man was not openly wielding some kind of weapon. That lone hold-out was a handsome dark-haired man, who seemed to be waiting for Sara to make an introduction.

“So you must be the friend that Sara told me about,” he intoned. “Jack, is it? I’m Max Fulbright.”

King nodded, and cast an inquisitive glance in Sara’s direction. Her expression told him that she had volunteered only the barest minimum of information about him. “That’s right. Generally speaking, Sara and I try not to interfere in each other’s work, but sometimes there’s a bit of overlap.”

“This time there’s a lot,” Sara said. “Manifold Genetics is involved, Jack. And you’ll never guess what they’ve been up to.”

“Actually, I might.” King beckoned Felice forward. “I don’t know if you got a chance to meet her back in Addis, but this is Felice Carter.”

Sara did a double-take as she recognized the geneticist. “Last time I saw you…” She left the sentiment hanging as something else dawned in her eyes. “Jack, she could be infected.”

King shook his head. “It’s much worse than that.”

He gave a quick synopsis of everything that had happened from the moment he rescued Felice from the burning hospital room, up to their arrival at the cavern. Felice seemed visibly pained by what he was saying, but the information was too important for him to sugar-coat anything. When he was done, Sara turned to Felice.

“I’ve been to the Manifold lab where they were trying to exploit what you found, and I’ve seen their research. They want to isolate the contagion that causes this…” She turned back to King, “zombie state. It’s the key to all of this, and she may have it in her.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” King countered. “There’s something else at work here.” He glanced at Felice, then took Sara aside and in a low voice, described what had happened when the rebels had tried to assault Felice. “She changed him,” he explained. “Just like that. One second he was attacking her, and the next, he was a mindless drone. That wasn’t the result of exposure to a contagion.”

Although he hadn’t been invited into the conversation, Fulbright spoke up. “Are you saying that she’s doing it…changing people with some kind of supernatural power?”

King glanced at Sara, curious to see her reaction to that suggestion. “I don’t know what the mechanism is, but I know what I saw.”

“Then we’ve got to keep her safe,” Fulbright declared. “I’ll arrange for transport to a secure facility.”

As Fulbright moved to the nearest helicopter, King turned back to Sara. “Who is that guy?”

“I think he’s CIA.”

“You’re not sure?”

She shrugged. “You know how spooks can be. But he arranged the takedown of a Manifold lab. He’s trying to get out in front of whatever they’ve got planned.”

“I don’t trust him.”

Sara playfully punched his shoulder. “Jack, are you jealous?”

He offered a half-hearted grin. “Guilty as charged. But seriously, this is some bad shit. I don’t trust anyone right now, least of all the Company.”

“I don’t know if we have any other options right now. If what you say is true-if she’s not in control of this…this ability-then we’ve got to keep her under wraps.”

Sara took a breath then continued. “I don’t buy into this idea of psychic power, but there are any number of other ways this might have happened. The research we took from the Manifold lab indicates that the virus they discovered here might have been responsible for the genetic mutation that led to the rise of human consciousness hundreds of thousands of years ago. They thought a second exposure to the virus might switch that gene off, essentially reversing that evolutionary leap. But maybe the trigger is something else. A pheromone that she releases when threatened. Just imagine how that could be used as a weapon. We’ve got to isolate exactly what that trigger is so we can come up with a way to stop it, and if we’re lucky, reverse the process.”

“She’s not a lab rat, Sara.”

Something dark and angry flashed in Sara’s eyes. “No. She’s patient zero for an outbreak that just might wipe out humanity, and that’s exactly how I have to think of her. You of all people should know that sometimes saving the world requires sacrifices. Hope and good vibrations aren’t going to save us from this, Jack. Let me do my job.”

Before King could respond, Fulbright returned. “It’s all arranged. Miss Carter, if you could just come with me.”

Felice lurched into motion as if the events of the past few days and recognition of her own role in those events had, at long last, deprived her entirely of volition. She moved, almost like one of the zombies, toward the waiting helicopter. As she stepped past Fulbright, he grasped her biceps with one hand.

Felice let out a cry of surprise and pulled away, clapping a hand to her arm where he had touched her. King caught a glimpse of a hypodermic syringe in the man’s hand.

Fulbright stepped back hastily, raising both hands. “Just something to make sure she doesn’t change all of us into zombies.”

“That’s completely unnecessary,” Sara accused. “You should have asked me first.”

“My apologies, Dr. Fogg, but you’re not calling the shots any more.” Fulbright lowered his hands, letting the syringe fall, and then stepped forward to catch Felice as the sedative he had administered went to work.

Moses suddenly jumped forward, breaking his long silence, and tried to wrestle Felice’s limp form away, but Fulbright shoved him back with his free hand, and then in the same motion drew a pistol and pointed it at the young Ethiopian. Moses raised his hands in a show of surrender, but the gesture evidently made no impression on Fulbright.

He calmly pulled the trigger, and shot Moses between the eyes.